An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1 eBook

A warrant having about this time been granted by the
governor, for the purpose of assembling a general
court-martial, a defect was discovered in the marine
mutiny act; and it was determined by the officers,
that, as marine officers, they could not sit under
any other than a warrant from the Lords Commissioners
of the Admiralty. The marines are so far distinct
from his Majesty’s land forces, that while on
shore in any part of his Majesty’s dominions,
they are regulated by an act of parliament passed
expressly for their guidance; and when it was found
necessary to employ a corps of marines during the
late war in America, they were included in the mutiny
act passed for his Majesty’s forces employed
in that country. This provision having been neglected
on the departure of the expedition for this country,
and not being discovered until the very instant when
it was wanted, all that could be done was to state
their situation to the governor, which they did on
the 13th. and at the same time requested, ’That
they might be understood to be acting only in conformity
with an act of the British legislature, passed expressly
for their regulation while on shore in any part of
his Majesty’s dominions; and that they had not
in any shape been wanting in the respect that belonged
to the high authority of his Majesty’s commission,
or to the officer invested with it in this country.’

On the 24th a party of natives, meeting a convict
who had straggled from the settlement to a fence that
some people were making for the purpose of inclosing
stock, threw several spears at him; but, fortunately,
without doing him any injury. The governor, on
being made acquainted with the circumstance, immediately
went to the spot with an armed party, where some of
them being heard among the bushes, they were fired
at; it having now become absolutely necessary to compel
them to keep at a greater distance from the settlement.

CHAPTER V

Settlement of Rose Hill
The Golden Grove returns from Norfolk Island
The storeships sail for England
Transactions
James Daley tried and executed for housebreaking
Botany Bay examined by the governor
A convict found dead in the woods
Christmas Day
A native taken and brought up to the settlement
Weather
Climate
Report of deaths from the departure of the fleet from
England to the
31st of December 1788

November.] The month of November commenced with the
establishment of a settlement at the head of the harbour.
On the 2nd, his excellency the governor went up to
the Crescent, with the surveyor-general, two officers,
and a small party of marines, to choose the spot, and
to mark out the ground for a redoubt and other necessary
buildings; and two days after a party of ten convicts,
being chiefly people who understood the business of
cultivation, were sent up to him, and a spot upon a
rising ground, which his excellency named Rose Hill,
in compliment to G. Rose Esq. one of the secretaries
of the treasury, was ordered to be cleared for the
first habitations. The soil at this spot was of
a stiff clayey nature, free from that rock which every
where covered the surface at Sydney Cove, well clothed
with timber, and unobstructed by underwood.